To:THE EDITORIAL BOARD OFPRAVDA

Written:Written on April 5, 1913Published:First published in 1923 in the bookIz epokhi “Zvezdy” i “Pravdy” (1911–14), Part III.

      Sent from Cracow to St. Petersburg.

      Printed from the typewritten copy found in police records.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,[1976],

      Moscow,Volume 35,

      pages95-96.Translated:Andrew RothsteinTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

For IV. Iv.

DearComrades,

Manythanks for your detailed letter and very valuable
information. Write more often, and give us contacts with
the districts.

Itis very important that the liquidators are giving a
“hostile” reception to the rapprochement of the pro-Party
Mensheviks with the Party. A resolution about this ought
to be adopted in the districts. This fact proves for the 1,000th
time that the liquidators have finally become a non-Party
and anti-Party element, that unity is possible only against
them (againstLuch) and by no means with them. You
are quite right, in my belief, in attributing great
importance to this fact. One can’t in any way talk about unity
with the liquidators: one cannot unite the Party with the
destroyers of the Party. The resolution of the February
Conference of 1913 about unity from below, it seems to me,
should be hectographed (if there are not enough copies),
adding the resolution againstLuchwith the precise list
of the five
points.[1]

Furthermore,I fully share your opinion about the
importance of a campaign against the
Seven,[2]and of the workers
displaying initiative in this respect. The Seven are
wavering and near-Party, but to a very little extent Party people.
One can enter into agreements with them within the Duma,
in order to direct them and drag them after oneself, but it
would be a crime to gloss over their liquidationism, their
lack of character and principle. We must support anddevelop the campaign against the Seven. Now that the
liquidators’Luchis expanding (obviously on liberals’ money,
because its deficit is 1,000 rubles a month, and its
circulation is only 12,000) we must strengthen tenfold the
campaign to support the six workers’ deputies, to increasePravda’s readership, to extendPravda. We must take the
struggle forPravdadirect into the factories, pressing them
to subscribe for more copies, winning away every factory
fromLuck, so that there is a competition between the
factories for the largest number of subscribers toPravda. A
victory of Party principles is a victory forPravdaand vice
versa. We should start this kind of campaign: to increase
the circulation ofPravdafrom 30,000 to 50,000–00,000,
and the number of subscribers from 5,000 to 20,000, and
proceed unfalteringly in this direction. Then we shall
extend and improvePravda.

Yourremarks about the lack of intellectuals are very
true. And we won’t have them.Pravdaand the illegal
publications will replace them. You should publish at least
hectographed resolutions and leaflets until more is
technically possible. There should be a weekly publication of 30–00
copies of hectographed resolutions of the Petersburg
Committee by way of directives. We could always come to an
agreement by correspondence about these resolutions. Think
this over. It will strengthen the illegal work, reduce the
number of victims, make the propaganda more general,
etc.

Theresolution of the Petersburg Committee for the Six
against the Seven is
excellent.[3]Haven’t you even
hectographed it? This is absolutely essential. Now this is just
the kind of campaign that is necessary. We shall try to
send you articles forIzvestia.[4]Let us know the dates.
Tell us what the size will be, and what the length of the
articles should be.

[1]Leninrefers to the resolution “The Attitude to Liquidationism, and
Unity” passed at the “February” Conference of the C.C. of the
R.S.D.L.P. and Party workers held in Cracow from December 26,
1912 to January 1, 1913 (January 8–14, 1913) (see present edition,
Vol. 18, pp. 463–65).

[2]TheSevenwere the seven Menshevik liquidator deputies who
belonged to the Social-Democratic group in the Fourth Duma.

[3]Referenceis to the resolution of the Petersburg Committee of the
R.S.D.L.P. passed in February 1913. The resolution noted the
correctness of the political line maintained by the Bolshevik
deputies in the Fourth Duma and condemned the conduct of the
Menshevik deputies supporting the liquidators’ paperLuch.

[4]Ata meeting in February 1913 the Petersburg Committee took a
decision to publishIzvestia P.K. R.S.D.R.P.(News of the P.C.
of the R.S.D.L.P.) and planned the first issue. The project did
not materialise.